Sunday, 31 July 2016

We’re moving further north for our next peek at Mild Ale from the early 1950’s.

I wish I had more analyses. Especially for northern breweries. As that would enable me to spot patterns much better. Though I suspect it might be confusing. Because, unlike London where all Mild was dark, northern breweries had a habit of brewing two Milds, one pale and one dark. At least ones in Yorkshire and Lancashire did.

You can see the practice a little in the table. Through Lees. They had a pale Ordinary Mild and a dark Best Mild. Which in itself is a bit unusual. They were usually the other way around, the stronger Mild being the paler one. No idea why that was different at Lees.

It’s a shame that I don’t have the FG for most examples. Because for those where I do, it’s exceptionally high, leaving a couple of beer over 4% ABV. I’m looking at Vaux in particular. Speaking of Vaux, I can remember their Mild. It was a pretty rare beer in its final days, the Northeast not being a great mild-drinking area. And, unlike the one in the table, was very dark as I recall.

Mild wasn’t very common by this period in Scotland. My suspicion is that these samples were taken south of the border. Probably in London, as they were performed by Truman. Younger had pubs selling their beer in the capital, both free houses and tied houses. These would have needed to have a Mild Ale to satisfy the demands of English drinkers. Which would explain why all the samples are dark in colour.

Northern and Scottish Mild Ale 1950 - 1954

Year

Brewer

Beer

Price per pint d

Acidity

OG

FG

ABV

App.
Atten-uation

colour

1950

Lees

K

1031.0

1950

Lees

Best Mild

1035.0

1951

Groves &
Whitnall

Mild Ale

14

0.04

1030.6

1004.1

3.45

86.60%

50

1951

Lees

K

1031.0

28

1951

Mitchell

Mild Ale

15

0.05

1037.2

1004.8

4.22

87.10%

60

1951

Vaux

Mild Ale

15

0.04

1035.6

1002.9

4.27

91.85%

24.5

1951

Wilsons

Mild Ale

14

0.06

1034.8

1005.3

3.84

84.77%

50

1952

Hull Brewery

Mild Ale

16

0.05

1032.1

1005.6

3.44

82.55%

85

1952

Lees

Bot. B

1035.0

35

1952

Lees

K

1031.0

34

1952

Lees

Best Mild

1034.0

100

1952

Tetley

X

13

1031.3

58

1953

Lees

Mild

1030.0

1953

Lees

Bot. B

1035.0

1953

Lees

Best Mild

1033.0

100

1953

Tetley

X

13

1031.4

58

1954

Lees

Bot. B

1035.0

35

1954

Lees

K

1031.0

35

1954

Lees

Best Mild

1035.0

100

Average

14.3

0.05

1033.1

1004.5

3.8

86.6%

56.8

1951

Wm. Younger

X

13

1030.0

72

1952

Wm. Younger

X

14

1031.2

80

1952

Wm. Younger

X

14

1033.5

92

1953

Wm. Younger

X

14

1033.3

82

Average

13.8

1032.0

81.5

Sources:

Lees brewing records held at the brewery.

Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan
Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.

Truman Gravity Book held at the London Metropolitan Archives,
document number B/THB/C/252

Saturday, 30 July 2016

You’ve probably noticed that I have a bit of a thing about Younger’s No. 3. Probably because it was a beer I quite liked.

I drank it regularly at a couple of places in the 1980’s. The Burley Liberal Club in Leeds. And the pub just around the corner from my office on Gloucester Place in London. In my head, I was thinking strong Dark Mild. Which wasn’t totally far off the mark.

It was a nice alternative to Younger’s IPA. At the time it had an OG of 1043º, ever so slightly higher than the IPA’s 1042.2º. A few pints at lunchtime set me up nicely for an afternoon snooze back at work. By the time I’d woken up it would be time to return to the pub for a few more pints before heading home.

You’ve probably noticed that the beer below is pretty pale. It always seems to have come in a variety of shades, though dark was most popular after WW I. The colour presumably coming from caramel added at racking time. Feel free to colour this up any way you like.

There’s not really much to say about the grist. As with most Younger’s beers in the 20th century. There’s pale malt, loads and loads of grits and that’s it. I have the feeling that all that limited grits to just 40% of the total was maintaining enough malt to convert the starch. They’d probably have happily used 70% grits, if it had been practical. Their beers have the highest levels of adjuncts I’ve seen anywhere.

Friday, 29 July 2016

I’m far too many analyses to make a single manageable table. Splitting them up makes sense. And it also highlights regional variations. Isn’t that fun?

Starting with the middle bit of the England. Which I’ve divided into the Midlands and East Anglia. For no particular reason, other than convenience. And I have to draw the lines somewhere. What’s fascinating about these two sets is how different they are. It tells us that Mild had considerable regional variations.

Starting with the colour. All the East Anglian Milds are dark, with the exception of the one from Grays. The average, just over 80, is well in dark brown territory. While the Midlands Milds are, except for Offiler’s, in the twilight zone between pale and dark. Significantly, that’s the only example from the East Midlands. The average of 45.9 is well short of dark brown.

There’s a big difference between the gravities, too. Remove Tollemache from the East Anglian set and the remainders are weaker than every Midlands Mild, except Offiler’s. The average ABV of the Midlands set it 0.75% higher than the East Anglian ones.

Both sets have high rates of attenuation, but it’s particularly high for the Midlands. Note that the FG’s are very similar for the two sets, despite the much higher average OG for the Midlands.

What have we learned? That in the West Midlands they liked their Mild strong but quite pale. While in East Anglia they preferred it weaker and darker.

East Anglia and Midlands Mild Ale 1950 - 1953

Year

Brewer

Beer

Price
per pint d

Acidity

OG

FG

ABV

App.
Atten-uation

colour

1950

Grays

X

11

1029.1

56

1950

Lacons

X

12

1032.7

100

1951

Lacons

Mild Ale

14

0.04

1031.4

1006.9

3.18

78.03%

65

1951

Lacons

X

13

1034.4

88

1951

Morgans

Mild Ale

14

0.04

1032.4

1007.2

3.27

77.78%

65

1951

Ridley

Mild Ale

13

0.06

1030.3

1004.9

3.30

83.83%

70

1951

Tollemache

Mild Ale

14

0.04

1028.7

1005.6

3.00

80.49%

60

1951

Wells & Winch

Mild Ale

14

0.05

1029.3

1008.6

2.68

70.65%

80

1951

Young Crawshay

Mild Ale

14

0.06

1031.2

1003.7

3.58

88.14%

70

1952

Lacons

X

14

1031.9

92

1953

Tollemache

X

16

1037.7

144

Average

13.5

0.05

1031.7

1006.2

3.17

79.82%

80.9

1950

Ansell

Mild Ale

13

0.04

1034.8

1005.2

3.85

85.06%

50

1950

Bass, Burton

Mild Ale

15

0.07

1041.4

1008

4.34

80.68%

40.1

1950

Mitchell & Butler

Mild Ale

13

0.04

1034.6

1005.4

3.80

84.39%

37

1950

Mitchell & Butler

Mild Ale

17

0.05

1034.5

1003.8

4.00

88.99%

38

1950

Mitchell & Butler

X

15

1038.4

41

1950

Offilers

Mild Ale

13

0.06

1031.2

1004.7

3.45

84.94%

70

1951

Ansell

Mild Ale

15

0.07

1038.3

1005.7

4.25

85.12%

45

Average

14.4

0.06

1036.2

1005.5

3.95

84.86%

45.9

Sources:

Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan
Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.

Truman Gravity Book held at the London Metropolitan Archives,
document number B/THB/C/252

Thursday, 28 July 2016

Sometimes I really wish I’d lived in the 1950’s. Hang on a minute. I did. Sometimes I really wish I’s been an adult during the 1950’s. Especially when I see strong Milds like this. In London they seem to have flowered briefly, then disappeared forever. Which is a shame. Maybe if some of the stronger versions had hung around Mild itself would have fared better.

All these stronger are Milds are from large breweries. I don’t know if that’s just the vagaries of my sample, which is pretty small in size. Or if it was generally the bigger boys that bothered with more than one cask Mild. Because that’s one thing all these beers have in common: they had a weedier younger brother with an OG of around 1030º. No brewery produced just a strong Mild.

Taylor Walker were unusual in having particularly strong branding for their Best Mild, Mainline. A beer which they pushed quite a bit. And, unusually for a Mild, was found in both draught and bottled form. Main Line Special in the table is the bottled version, which you can see was considerably stronger than its draught counterpart.

The gravity averages 7 points higher than for Ordinary Mild, while the ABV is more than 0.5% higher. Watney’s Best comes in at over 4.5% ABV, which would have been a very reasonable strength for a Best Bitter in the early 1950’s.

Once again, they’re pretty dark beers. Not quite as dark on average as the Ordinary Milds from large breweries, but darker than the ones from small brewers. The lesson? Londoners liked their Mild dark.

Large London brewery Best Mild Ale 1950 - 1954

Year

Brewer

Beer

Price
per pint d

Acidity

OG

FG

ABV

App.
Atten-uation

colour

1950

Charrington

Best Mild Ale

14

0.05

1037.4

1010.4

3.50

72.19%

105

1950

Ind Coope

Mild Ale

15

0.05

1039.2

1009.6

3.84

75.51%

75

1951

Ind Coope

XXX

14

1034.76

1951

Taylor Walker

Mainline

15

0.08

1035.2

1007.6

3.58

78.41%

100

1951

Watney

Best

20

0.07

1043.1

1008

4.57

81.44%

110

1952

Ind Coope

X

13

1036.69

102

1954

Ind Coope

Strong Mild Ale

19

0.05

1043.5

1010.7

4.26

75.40%

110

1954

Taylor Walker

Mainline

15

0.04

1036.5

1014.5

2.84

60.27%

95

1954

Taylor Walker

Main Line Special

27

0.05

1044.5

1017.5

3.48

60.67%

125

Average

16.89

0.06

1039.0

1011.2

3.72

71.99%

102.8

Sources:

Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan
Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.

Truman Gravity Book held at the London Metropolitan Archives,
document number B/THB/C/252

Wednesday, 27 July 2016

Hope you’re not getting bored of the Scottish recipes. Because there are loads more to come.

Yes, it’s coming along nicely. Scotland! vol. II, I mean. The results of my poll were quite confusing. 250 recipes came top with a third of the votes. So I’ve decided to go for 300, the only option that received no votes. That’s just the way I am. A contrary bastard.

Mild seems to have just melted away in Scotland after WW I. Replaced by 60/- Pale Ale, which may have been coloured up to look like Dark Mild. Though William Younger do seem to have stuck with brewing Mild longer than most.

Bizarrely – especially as Younger wasn’t much into the technique, in contrast to every other brewery in Scotland – this was parti-gyled with Expt, a strong Pale Ale. Though they were hopped separately, only sharing pre-boil worts.

You’ve probably noticed how dull Younger’s recipes were. Most don’t stretch any further than pale malt and grits. Lots and lots of luvverly grits. They must have had quite a grits silo, the quantities they used. And a big cooker, given the percentage of grits in every recipe.

Grits aside, this has a similar profile to an English Ordinary Mild in terms of ABV and bitterness levels. Not in terms of colour. Though, it being a Scottish beer, they probably coloured to every imaginable shade of brown.bold

Tuesday, 26 July 2016

Numbers. I look on them as friends. Much more reliable friends that people. You know where you are with numbers. A five doesn’t turn into a four behind your back. Though a six may turn out to be nine.

That’s my excuse for bothering you with a load more numbers. Not quite as many as in the last of this series. But enough to tide you through a sunny Tuesday morning. Unfortunately there are quite a few holes in the table. Because many come from the Truman rather than the Whitbread Gravity Book.

To be honest, there’s not much difference with the large brewery Milds. An average OG just over 1030º, about 3% ABV, around 75% attenuation. The only significant difference is the colour, which is a full 20 points lower. Oh, the price. That’s lower, too. About 0.75d.

On a personal not, I drank one of this set: Fuller’s Hock. I believe they still occasionally brew it. A shame it isn’t regularly available as it’s a very pleasant beer, when in good nick.

Wenlock Amber Ale is a bit odd. It’s one of the darkest beers in this set. How can that be amber by anyone’s reckoning?

Small London brewery Ordinary Mild Ale 1950 -
1953

Year

Brewer

Beer

Price
per pint d

Acidity

OG

FG

ABV

App.
Atten-uation

colour

1950

Wenlock

Ale

12

0.05

1030.6

1008.4

2.88

72.55%

100

1951

Wenlock

X

12

1032.83

88

1953

Wenlock

Amber Ale

14

0.05

1031.6

1006.5

3.26

79.43%

100

1950

Beasley

Ale

12

1031.43

56

1953

Beasley

X

13

1031.47

116

1953

Cannon

X

13

1031.84

96

1951

Friary

Mild Ale

14

0.06

1029.9

1004.5

3.30

84.95%

85

1950

Friary Holroyd

X

12

1033.47

82

1951

Fullers

Mild Ale

14

0.04

1031.2

1008.9

2.89

71.47%

90

1950

Hammerton

Ale

12

1030.41

94

1950

Harman's

X

12

1032.07

84

1950

Young & Co

X

12

1033.07

68

1953

Young & Co

X

13

1030.73

60

Average

12.7

0.05

1031.6

1007.1

3.08

77.10%

86.1

Sources:

Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan
Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.

Truman Gravity Book held at the London Metropolitan Archives,
document number B/THB/C/252

Monday, 25 July 2016

"You've seen bits of it? So you did see him picking bits of glass out of his feet."

"Yes."

"John . . . what's his second name? The character in the film."

"You should know, you've seen the whole film."

Lexie's talking to me about Die Hard. Not sure why. Defintely time for a beer. One from an old new brewery, De Leckere. They first started up in the 1990's, I believe. Then seemed to go away for a while. Not sure of the right story, and can't be arsed to look it up.

De Leckere Spring Haver 6.5% ABV
Lexie's gone back upstairs. Time to quickly write a quick Sketch. Pale yellow. Smells perfumy - elderflower, maybe? Maybe not. Perfummy and quite bitter in the mouth, with a lemon-like touch of acidity at the end. Not bad. Quite like the fact that it's decently bitter, in a tobaccoey sort of way.

"Do you want to try my beer, Dolores?"

"In a minute."

"It's not a horrible one."

"That's OK. Quite nice."

Only a 25cl. bottle. It didn't last long. Time for beer number 2. One from De Naeckte Brouwers (the Naked Brewers) of Amstelveen. Which is where I work. It's the largest Dutch town without a train station. That's how exciting it is.

De Naeckte Brouwers Chinook SHIPA, 7.5% ABV
They've done a series of SHIPA each using a different hop. All the trendy ones, obviously. Not fun things like EKG. It's the colour of Bitter. Oddly savoury in the mouth. And not particularly bitter at all. How odd.

You can probably guess from the highly specific title that I’m struggling with my sample size. It’s so large I’ve had to – somewhat arbitrarily – chop it into more manageable chunks.

The first and largest of which is the standard Mild from large London breweries. Of which there were still quite a few in the 1950’s. And all produced Mild. Or to be even more specific, Dark Mild Ale. Because there isn’t a pale one in the list. The lowest colour value is 50, which is a dark amber. Pretty well all the others are dark brown. The average is 106.7. Or quite dark.

The average OG has increased a little - 1.6 points – despite me having stripped out Best Mild to a separate table. So I’d reckon the real increase is more like 2 points. Combine that with a slightly lower average FG and it allows the ABV to tentatively poke its head above 3%. Hurray, you could now actually get drunk on Mild.

A few examples are still under 1030º. But in the case of Ind Coope this can be explained by the fact that they also brewed a stronger Mild. Which appears in a later table.

The price has increased a little, form 12.5d in the late 1940’s to 13.3d. That’s about 6p in modern money. It wouldn’t even get you a sip of Mild today. If you could find Mild, that is. There’s bugger all of it about nowadays.

Large London brewery Ordinary Mild Ale 1950 - 1954

Year

Brewer

Beer

Price
per pint d

Acidity

OG

FG

ABV

App.
Atten-uation

colour

1950

Barclay Perkins

Ale

13

0.05

1031.8

1006.8

3.24

78.62%

95

1950

Charrington

MA

12

0.07

1029.6

1007.1

2.92

76.01%

120

1950

Courage

MA

13

0.06

1032.4

1006.7

3.34

79.32%

120

1950

Ind Coope

MA

12

0.07

1027.9

1008.9

2.46

68.10%

67

1950

Mann Crossman

Mild Ale

13

0.07

1031.8

1005.8

3.38

81.76%

95

1950

Meux

XX

12

0.08

1026.9

1005.6

2.76

79.18%

152

1950

Taylor Walker

MA

12.5

0.07

1028.9

1006.1

2.96

78.89%

80

1950

Truman

MA

13

0.07

1031.9

1008

3.10

74.92%

95

1950

Watney

Best Ale

13

0.06

1031.2

1006.3

3.23

79.81%

105

1950

Whitbread

Best Ale

13

1031.7

1010.5

2.80

66.88%

110

1951

Barclay Perkins

Ale

14

0.05

1033.8

1007

3.48

79.29%

120

1951

Charrington

Ale

13

0.07

1033.5

1007.3

3.40

78.21%

110

1951

Courage

Ale

13

0.06

1034.5

1010.3

3.13

70.14%

110

1951

Ind Coope

Ale

12

0.05

1029.4

1008

2.77

72.79%

50

1951

Mann Crossman

Ale

13

0.07

1034.5

1006.5

3.64

81.16%

90

1951

Meux

X

12

1028.96

104

1951

Taylor Walker

Ale

12

0.07

1031.7

1006.9

3.22

78.23%

100

1951

Truman

Ale

13

0.07

1033.9

1006.3

3.59

81.42%

100

1951

Watney

Ale

13

0.08

1032.7

1006

3.47

81.65%

110

1951

Watney

Ale

14

0.08

1032.8

1007.4

3.30

77.44%

105

1951

Whitbread

X

13

1031.3

96

1952

Barclay Perkins

X

14

1031.51

118

1952

Charrington

X

13

1032.61

118

1952

Ind Coope

X

13

1031.1

82

1952

Mann Crossman

X

14

1034.5

108

1952

Meux

X

13

1029.96

152

1952

Taylor Walker

X

13

1030.74

100

1952

Truman

X

14

1033.7

110

1952

Watney

X

14

1032.76

104

1952

Whitbread

X

14

1031.39

114

1953

Barclay Perkins

X

14

1032.11

96

1953

Charrington

X

14

1032.67

128

1953

Courage

X

14

1031.99

124

1953

Ind Coope

X

14

1033.4

100

1953

Mann Crossman

Best Ale

14

0.06

1032.9

1009.2

3.07

72.04%

110

1953

Meux

X

13

1029.25

144

1953

Taylor Walker

X

13

1032.74

96

1953

Truman

Ale

14

0.05

1034

1008.1

3.36

76.18%

90

1953

Watney

Ale

14

0.06

1033

1010.1

2.96

69.39%

95

1953

Whitbread

Best Ale

14

0.05

1032.7

1010.5

2.87

67.89%

100

1954

Barclay Perkins

XX

14

0.06

1029.4

1005.2

3.14

82.31%

110

1954

Charrington

Ale

13

0.08

1030.7

1009.6

2.73

68.73%

120

1954

Courage

Ale

14

0.05

1032.6

1006.2

3.43

80.98%

125

1954

Mann Crossman

X

14

0.06

1032.9

1007.5

3.30

77.20%

115

1954

Meux

Mild Ale

14

0.05

1031.2

1007.3

3.10

76.60%

120

1954

Taylor Walker

T.W.X.

13

0.06

1031.7

1010.3

2.77

67.51%

100

1954

Truman

LM

14

0.05

1034

1007.8

3.40

77.06%

95

1954

Watney

XX

14

0.05

1032.3

1011.4

2.70

64.71%

110

1954

Whitbread

Best Ale

14

0.06

1032.9

1009.9

2.98

69.91%

105

Average

13.3

0.06

1031.9

1007.8

3.12

75.45%

106.6

Sources:

Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan
Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.

Truman Gravity Book held at the London Metropolitan Archives,
document number B/THB/C/252